DENTON, Texas – Abilene Christian women's soccer came up just short on Thursday night, falling 2-1 on the road at North Texas.
The Wildcats fell behind early after the Mean Green capitalized on opportunities in the opening minutes, but ACU settled in and created chances throughout the first half. The breakthrough came in the 53rd minute when
Abby Smith converted a penalty kick to level the match at 1-1.
ACU generated nine total shots, with four on target, including second-half looks from
McCarly Holloman,
Nia Leslie, and
Raegan Hollis that kept the pressure on the North Texas back line. Goalkeeper
Lili Ross had a standout performance, recording eight saves and keeping the Wildcats in contention until the closing moments.
Despite the effort, the Mean Green found a late goal in the minute to edge out the win.
"A hard one to let go in the last seconds and felt like we should've left with more on the road," said head coach
Stephen Salas. "What we learned is we are tough. We found the equalizer and made adjustments at half, which I was proud of the team for. That was a point of emphasis we needed to find over the past couple of games. We were strong in the second half and had opportunities to find the game-winning goal, but we let the game open up too much in the last minutes when we needed to stick with what was working and who we are."
The Wildcats fall to 3-4 on the season, with their final home non-conference match on September 11 against Northwestern State.
